RIGA - The New Democrats, an upstart party that failed to win any seats in last month's parliamentary elections, filed a claim in the Supreme Court against the Central Election Commission on Oct. 27 protesting the election results.
In a statement, the party asked that the election results be annulled due to freedom of speech violations. New Democrat officials said they would also consider applying to Latvia's Constitutional Court to assess whether election campaigning complied with the Parliament Elections Law, the Law on Financing of Political Parties and the Law on the Central Election Commission with the Constitution.
"Unfortunately, the freedom of speech and equality was violated during the pre-election campaign, and the state took no measures to ensure equal and democratic elections," party members wrote in their statement.
New Democrats argued that the People's Party and the Latvia's First Party/Latvia's Way bloc had used two legal entities 's the non-governmental organizations Sabiedriba Par Varda Brivibu (Society For Freedom of Speech) and Pa Saulei (For the World) 's whose participants and organizers were also members of the aforementioned political parties, to earn campaign donations and boost party popularity during the pre-elections.
The People's Party and Latvia's First Party/Latvia's Way form two-thirds of the current ruling coalition, which together with their third partner 's the Greens and Farmers Union 's won 51 seats in the next parliament.
"The activities of these legal entities can be considered donations according to state legislation, but such legal entities are forbidden to donate to political organizations," the claim stated. The party argued that, according to the Law on Financing of Political Parties, these legal entities should be considered intentional intermediaries and so violated fair-campaign regulations.
New Democrats also referred to a study carried out by Lolita Cigane of the Providus public policy center revealing that the total costs for the People's Party campaign, including the cost of advertisements paid by the Society For Freedom of Speech, reached over 702,196 lats (999,140 euros) by Oct. 1, an astonishing 423,143 lats more than the statutory ceiling of 280,000 lats.
Latvia's First Party, with the help of Pa Saulei, spent 520,902 lats on its campaign by Oct. 1, some 240,902 lats more than the set ceiling.
Indeed, the accused parties' shrewd campaign ploys were no secret. As political scientist Daunis Auers told The Baltic Times after the October elections, "We have to remember that it's the parties who created the [fair campaigning] legislation, and that it's true pretty much anywhere in the world that parties try to create loopholes which they can subsequently utilize."
Speaking specifically about the People's Party and Latvia's First Party/Latvia's Way use of third-party advertising, Auers said the fact that both parties ended up in the ruling coalition was "worrying."
"The current coalition government is made up of the political parties who most broke this [fair campaigning] legislation 's especially the First Party, who used heavy third-party advertising," Auers said. "Therefore, I don't think there will be much political motivation to change these laws."
The New Democrats echoed this point in their letter, citing party ratings as proof that the election results had been heavily influenced by "back-door" campaigning.
But this wasn't the only bone they had to pick. ."
The People's Party violated the law in another way as well, the New Democrats stated in their letter, specifying that a number of party members, who also worked as municipality heads, had invited people to vote for the People's Party, thereby abusing their authority.."
At the end of their letter, the New Democrats asked the Supreme Court to annul the Central Election Commission's decision on the election results. The party also asked the court to launch an investigation into both NGOs, and to invite Cigane as a witness, as well as the request for a list of the members, organizers and sponsors from both NGOs. New Democrats Chairman Maris Gulbis told the Baltic News Service that the claim had been prepared by "competent European lawyers."Meanwhile, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga met with Central Election Commission head Arnis Cimdars on Oct. 28 and thanked the commission for its good work in organizing the general elections.."
The People's Party emerged as the winner of the parliamentary elections, winning 19.56 percent of the votes. Latvia's First Party/Latvia's Way was supported by 8.58 percent of the votes, while the New Democrats received only 1.27 percent of votes.
